Call for 'heir hunter' regulation (From This is The West Country)

Call for 'heir hunter' regulation

12:31am Thursday 10th September 2009

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Britons are being forced to hand over millions of pounds of money they inherit to so-called heir hunter firms each year, researchers have claimed.

Heir hunters, also known as probate genealogists, trace beneficiaries of estates when the holder has died without making a will or people who have been left money but are at an unknown address.

In many cases they are instructed by solicitors or executors to track down all beneficiaries to an estate before it can be lawfully distributed.

But some firms also research unclaimed estates or ones that are intestate, meaning no will was made, which are advertised by the Treasury Solicitor, racing each other to piece together a family tree and find relatives who are in line for an inheritance, according to probate genealogists Title Research.

While probate genealogists instructed by an executor generally charge fixed fees which are paid out of the estate, heir hunting firms typically charge a fee of between 10% and 30% of the amount the people they trace stand to inherit, while in some cases the fee can be as high as 40%.

People who have been contacted by the firms say they frequently employed aggressive tactics, often refusing to reveal the name and details of the deceased person, or even the value of the inheritance until they agreed to pay their fee.

Four out of 10 people who were found by heir hunters and had to pay a fee said they felt under pressure to do so, while 59% said they thought the way the firms worked was unfair.

The research estimates that people could be handing over as much as £10 million a year to heir hunter firms.

Tom Curran, chief executive of Title Research, said: "We believe it is grossly unfair for heir locators to sign-up beneficiaries to contracts that often result in the beneficiary needlessly signing away 10% to 30% of their inheritance to the heir locator for being found.

"Fees at this level are excessive and disproportionate to the amount of work involved in locating heirs.

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